


Fathers

by e_cat



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Everyone has father issues, Father's Day, Fighting, I can't write anything without mentioning Pynch, M/M, Making Up, Please Don't Hate Me, Pre-Relationship, Some of it is cute, and then some of it is the opposite, it was mostly implied, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-22
Updated: 2015-06-22
Packaged: 2018-04-05 13:38:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4181853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_cat/pseuds/e_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, it's Father's Day. Gansey, of course, has an actual father that he must attend to. Blue has never had to deal with Father's Day before, and isn't sure she wants to now.</p><p>But that isn't really the important part, because this story is mostly about Ronan and Adam having issues with Father's Day and fathers in general.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fathers

Father’s Day was a tricky concept in Gansey’s circle of friends. For Gansey personally, it wasn’t so much that he didn’t love his father – he did – but that he yearned with every fiber of his being to be nothing like him. That was not something he felt would be appropriate to bring up at Father’s Day brunch.

Really, Gansey would much rather have skipped the whole ordeal – it was a formality that required Gansey to do many things he disagreed with, the least of which was leaving Henrietta. Nevertheless, Father’s Day was a requirement that Gansey could not bring himself to ignore. And, so, on the third Saturday of June, he packed up his bags and got in his car to drive home. He hesitated with the keys in the ignition. Ronan watched him, dark and unreadable. “I’ll call tomorrow,” Gansey said carefully. “I would appreciate it if you answered.”

Ronan didn’t reply – didn’t even move. Gansey started the car uneasily. He would have liked to ask Adam to look in on Ronan. Or maybe he would have liked to ask Ronan to look in on Adam – he wasn’t sure which of them to be more concerned about. It might be worse if they were together, though.

Maybe he should have asked Blue to check on the both of them. But, then, Blue didn’t have the most clear-cut paternal situation, either. Last he’d heard from her, she’d planned to spend the day sorting through bins of fabric scraps to add leaves to the trees in her room, because “Father’s Day has never been something I’ve celebrated before, and I don’t see any point in starting now.”

Although, the day before that, she’d decided “once and for all” that she was going to take the opportunity to get to know Artemus. And before that, she’d said she planned to have Mr. Gray teach her some of the finer points of inflicting bodily harm. So, there was really no telling what Blue was going to do tomorrow, and Gansey didn’t want to interrupt her plans – or whatever did end up happening – with concerns about their two friends with no fathers between them.

Gansey steered his car out the parking lot reluctantly. “Don’t get into any trouble!” he yelled out the window in a last-ditch attempt to reassure himself.

Ronan shifted, finally, disturbing Chainsaw’s perch on his shoulder. Gansey could see his teeth in the rearview mirror. “If you see any senators,” Ronan yelled back, “tell them that they’re dicks.” Gansey didn’t bother to reply, but he smiled at Ronan’s comment – typical Ronan. Maybe everything would be okay after all.

 

 

On the third Sunday of June, Adam woke up to a pounding on his door. He glanced at the alarm clock – 10:30. Half an hour before his alarm was set to go off. He didn’t have work today, after working until nearly five in the morning last night, but he couldn’t let himself sleep for the whole day anyways. Still, he would have liked that extra half hour.

Adam got off the bed carefully, his heart pounding more rapidly than the knocking on the door. His father was in prison – he knew that – but the impatient banging on the door to his apartment, today of all days, made that a little hard to remember.

There was no one else it could be, really, but Adam checked the peephole anyways, and felt a rush of relief when he saw Ronan. He didn’t really want to talk to anyone today, but Ronan was almost as good as no one. Adam opened the door.

“Parrish,” Ronan said, shouldering his way into the room. He carried the same over-large bag he’d kept Chainsaw in when she’d been a baby, and Adam briefly wondered if Ronan had conjured himself another newborn dream. Then Ronan dropped the bag roughly on the floor, and Adam dismissed the thought.

“What are you doing here?” Adam asked, his exhaustion evident in his voice. Ronan glanced up at him from where he knelt on the floor, grinning like that was the best thing Adam could possibly have said.

“Why, Parrish,” Ronan said in that voice that Adam knew meant trouble, “you sound tired.” Adam scowled – Ronan sounded entirely too pleased about that. Ronan’s smile expanded, and he reached into his bag. “Would you, perhaps, like some coffee?” He pulled out thermos and tossed it to Adam. “Happy Father’s Day.”

Adam frowned at the thermos. “You are aware that I’m not your father, right? You don’t generally give Father’s Day gifts to random people.”

Ronan shrugged. He wouldn’t look at Adam as he said, “That thermos has been sitting in my room at the barns for three years. It’s about time someone used it.”

Adam stared at Ronan as he let the information sink in. “Oh,” he said quietly. He felt as if he should follow it up with something, but he wasn’t entirely sure what to say.

He turned his attention to the thermos, curious now that he knew it had been intended as a gift for Niall Lynch, a man who literally had everything he could possibly conceive of. _What do you get the man who already has the world at his fingertips?_

The thermos was several blended shades of gray, every one of them the color of stone. The thermos itself felt as if it was made of stone, too, but it was as light as if it was made of plastic. The body of the thermos was swirled with lines of mossy green in much the same style as Ronan’s tattoo. It was beautiful.

Adam unscrewed the lid carefully to peer inside, but the thermos was empty. He glanced at Ronan questioningly, but Ronan was currently digging around for something else in his bag. Adam turned the lid over, and absently slid back the latch for the mouthpiece. That was when the coffee started pooling on the floor.

Adam glanced between the puddle of steaming liquid on the floor and the lid directly above it for a minute, not entirely sure what to think. Ronan glanced back at him and jumped to his feet. “Christ, Parrish!” he exclaimed, wrenching the lid from Adam’s hand and forcing on top of the thermos. “What were you thinking?”

Adam stared at the circle of coffee on the floor. “I didn’t – I didn’t know it would do that,” he said, still a little surprised.

Ronan shook his head in disbelief. “Why didn’t you fucking ask?”

“I didn’t know it would –” Adam started again. He sighed. “I don’t suppose your magical coffee maker has free cream and sugar, too?”

Ronan grinned and took the thermos from Adam’s hand. “One cream, two sugars,” he stated, although Adam didn’t ever remember telling him previously how he liked his coffee. Ronan held the thermos above himself and tilted his head back to see the bottom. Adam squeezed beside him to get a look as well. On the bottom of the thermos, there were two dials in two different shades of green, both set to 0. Ronan spun the lighter one to 1, and the darker to 2. Then he handed the thermos back to Adam.

“How does it work?” Adam asked, taking a careful sip of the coffee. It was actually pretty good.

“Dream power,” Ronan replied simply, edging away to grab an old towel – an _older_ towel; all the towels were old – to throw on top of the coffee lake. “I’ll replace that,” he said, which Adam was fully aware likely meant that Ronan planned to dream him a whole new bed and bath set. He chose to ignore that fact.

“I _meant,”_ Adam said instead, “how does it know when to stop pouring coffee?”

Ronan shrugged. “Dream power,” he repeated. “It worked it the dream, so it works in the real world. Though,” he said with a smirk, “I didn’t try caffeinating the floor in the dream.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “You should have given this to Gansey,” he said. “He appreciates unnecessary gestures.”

Ronan snorted. “Unnecessary? I think you deserve at least one good memory of Father’s Day, don’t you?” Adam didn’t respond, because anything he might have said wouldn’t have been nice after Ronan had given him a gift.

“Seriously, Parrish,” Ronan continued, “you’re better off without that asshole.” Adam’s hands gripped the thermos more tightly. “He didn’t deserve a single thing you’ve ever given him.”

Adam snapped. “You don’t know a damn thing,” he said quietly.

Ronan narrowed his eyes. “I don’t? Are you forgetting that I saw what that bastard did to you? The bruises, the missed school. You father was a fucking pathetic excuse for a parent.”

Adam let out a strained breath. “You don’t know,” he repeated. “You have no right to talk about _my_ father.”

Ronan shook his head with disbelief. “Are you fucking kidding me? Are you so fucking messed up that you can’t see how fucking fantastic it is that he isn’t in your life anymore?”

Adam’s fingers were turning white on the thermos. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe that he wasn’t better off now that he was free from his father. It wasn’t even that he had any sympathy for him. In fact, Adam was perfectly comfortable saying that his father was a horrible person. The problem was that _Ronan_ was saying it.

“You have no right,” Adam repeated, raising his voice this time. “He’s _my_ father, not yours. You want to insult your father, go right ahead. Don’t talk about mine.”

Ronan stared at him for a moment, as if he didn’t know him. Adam set the thermos down so that he wouldn’t be tempted to throw it, and crossed his arms so he wouldn’t be tempted to hit anything. Sometimes, he hated himself for being his father’s son. “How would you feel if I said that _your_ father was a bad parent?” Adam asked, knowing that this probably crossed a line. “He was never around, right? Who’s to say my father was any worse than yours?”

Ronan’s fists were clenched at his sides. “Shut the fuck up, Adam,” he said. “It’s completely different.”

“Why?” Adam persisted. “Because my father isn’t dead? Not everyone who dies is a saint, Ronan.”

Ronan spun and snatched his bag off the floor. “Fuck you, Adam,” he said, storming towards the door. “Fuck you.”

“Come back when you aren’t an asshole!” Adam yelled after him, and Ronan shot him the middle finger as he slammed the door. Adam kicked the wall. It didn’t make him feel any better.

 

 

“Blue?” Gansey said into the phone, surprised. He’d been thinking about calling her after he couldn’t get ahold of Ronan, but he hadn’t expected her to call him on Ronan’s phone.

“Yeah, hi,” Blue said distractedly. “Did you tell Ronan he could have a bonfire?”

“What?” Gansey asked, sure that he’d heard her wrong.

“Ronan said that you told him that he could have a bonfire in the parking lot of Monmouth,” Blue explained impatiently.

“That’s not what I said!” Ronan yelled in the background. “I told you that he didn’t say I _couldn’t!”_ Then there was a loud crash.

“Right,” Blue said. “What do you want me to do?”

Gansey hesitated. “What exactly is he burning?”

Blue sighed. “Hang on.” She put down the phone, and Gansey just barely heard her ask Ronan what he was burning. Ronan’s manic laugh followed, and Gansey heard him yell, “Fucking everything!”

Gansey sighed and rubbed his forehead. Blue came back on the phone and repeated Ronan’s words. “Put Ronan on the line,” Gansey requested.

“I’ll _try,”_ Blue replied, and Gansey spent the next 2 minutes and 43 seconds – he watched the clock – listening to Blue and Ronan argue about whether Ronan was going to talk to Gansey. Then Blue picked up the phone again and said, “You owe me so many favors.”

Seconds later, Ronan’s disgruntled voice said, “Fucking _what,_ Gansey? I’m busy!”

“Jane says that you’ve made a bonfire,” Gansey said in his sternest voice. “I wanted to check that you weren’t incinerating anything important.”

Ronan let out an ugly laugh. “Don’t worry – I left your precious books out of it.”

“Ronan…” Gansey sighed. “Why are you burning things in the parking lot?”

“Because I fucking felt like it,” Ronan replied. “Why the fuck else?”

“Did you fight with Adam?” Gansey asked. He had seen Ronan upset over his father before, but it had been three years. There must have been something more to set him off.

Ronan laughed that ugly laugh again. Gansey hoped this was the last time he would ever hear it. “You been talking to Parrish?” he asked, confirming Gansey’s suspicions. “You can tell him that I’m fucking fine!” With the last word, there was another crash as Ronan presumably threw something else on the fire. “And tell him to go to hell!”

Gansey sighed. “Put Blue back on,” he requested. Without saying anything else, Ronan hung up the phone. Gansey called back immediately, and Blue answered. “Blue,” he said in a serious voice. “Can you find Adam? Find out what happened? I’m on my way back.”

“Got it,” Blue replied. “Do you want me to do anything else?”

Gansey shook his head before he realized Blue couldn’t see him. “Just call me after you talk to Adam.”

 

 

Adam hadn’t been intending to open his door again that day. Not after the last time. Blue Sargent, however, did not take no for an answer. After ten minutes of kicking and yelling at the door, Adam heard clicking noises, and swung open the door to find Blue kneeling with two of her hair clips stuck in the lock. “What are you doing?” he demanded.

Blue grinned at him. “Well, you wouldn’t open the door,” she said. “I assumed you were in need of medical assistance.”

Adam rolled his eyes. “Where did you even learn to pick locks?”

Blue’s smile widened. “Mr. Gray taught me,” she said, “after I taught him how to make a fabric tree.”

Adam sighed. “Did Gansey send you? I don’t want to talk about it.”

Blue huffed. “Well, can you at least convince Ronan to stop burning things in the parking lot?”

Adam started. “Ronan’s doing _what?”_ He glanced around her, but, of course Blue must have meant Monmouth’s parking lot – _Ronan’s_ parking lot – not the one at the church.

“Yes, yes,” Blue said impatiently, “Ronan is burning things. Can you stop him or what?”

Adam grimaced. “Unfortunately,” he said, “I think I can.”

 

 

“Nice barbeque.” Ronan spun around to see Adam standing at the mouth of the parking lot, his arms crossed. “But I think you forgot something.”

“What?” Ronan snarled. “My fucking dignity?”

Adam shrugged and tossed a package of hot dogs to Ronan. “What’s a Father’s Day barbeque without –”

“Phallic meats?” Ronan finished for him.

Adam laughed. Ronan couldn’t believe he was laughing. “I was going to go with ‘traditional American food products,’ but sure,” he said. “Why not?”

Ronan tore open the packet and removed a single hot dog. He held it above his head and whistled for Chainsaw, who swooped in and snatched the treat from him. Ronan kept his eyes on Adam as he dropped the remaining hot dogs, package and all, onto the inferno. Adam winced, but Ronan was in the mood for a fight about money – about anything other than what they’d fought about earlier.

“Look,” Adam sighed, “I’m sorry for what I said, okay? I just… It really bugs me when you say stuff like that, you know? You weren’t there for my entire childhood. He wasn’t always that bad. I _do_ have some good memories.”

Ronan felt himself deflate and he sank to the ground beside the bonfire. Adam came over to sit beside him. “You know,” Ronan said quietly, “there were only a handful of days you could always count on my dad to be around. Christmas, Father’s Day, my birthday. One time, Matthew had this music recital, and he promised he’d be there.”

He paused, and Adam placed a hand on his knee. “Matthew cried for hours,” Ronan continued, his voice quieter than before. “When he came back, he brought Matthew a paperweight. A fucking paperweight. I couldn’t believe it, but Matthew acted like it made everything okay. He left again an hour later. That was the one time I wasn’t sorry to see him go.”

Adam sighed and leaned his head on Ronan’s shoulder. “You aren’t like your father,” he said in a low voice. “You wouldn’t do that. If you said you were going to be somewhere, you’d be there.”

Ronan roped and arm around Adam’s back. “You aren’t like your father, either,” he said.

Adam sighed again. “I’m not so sure,” he admitted. “Sometimes, I think I’m just like him.”

Ronan laid back, taking Adam with him. He repositioned his arm so that it was behind Adam’s neck. “You aren’t, though,” he said quietly. “You’re Adam. You’re so much better than anyone else.”

Adam shifted a little closer to Ronan, burying his face in Ronan’s shoulder. Ronan held him more tightly, letting himself enjoy this one little moment. Adam told him, “You’re better than anyone else, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I get kind of annoyed when I read something about Ronan or somebody insulting Adam's father, and Adam is just like, "Okay, whatever." Because, even though it's true, it can be really, really annoying to have someone else point it out. This is why Ronan and Adam fought.
> 
> Oh, yeah, and these characters don't belong to me: they clearly belong to the wonderful Maggie Stiefvater.


End file.
